Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:20:35 -0600WeeblySat, 21 Jul 2018 17:28:04 GMThttp://www.bluegrasslearning.com/blog/many-students-are-missing-this-easy-act-math-questionWe've seen many students missing a fairly easy ACT math question they learned in Algebra I but may have forgotten. This video will show you how to answer this simple word problem. It could mean an extra point on your ACT math score.

​Most high school juniors in Kentucky have received their ACT results from the statewide March test. if you didn't get the score you were hoping for, try the below tips on your next attempt. I have included a few of our favorite strategies that students learn in Bluegrass Learning ACT prep classes.

General exam tip: The ACT is a formal test, therefore, it is predictable. Questions and answers are structured in a certain way.

The test is written in active voice syntax. That means the questions and answers are often written in the shortest, most specific way, with the most important information (the subject) coming first. For example, If a question asks "Why did Tom write the article?" The correct answer might start with “Tom wrote the article to prove…”

If you see an answer choice written like this: “The article Tom wrote…” it's probably wrong. Look closely. The question asked about Tom, not about the article he wrote, so the subject, Tom, will also come first in the correct answer.

Having said that, don’t make the mistake of assuming ‘shortest answer is always correct.’ Some students have heard this tip and assume they can just guess a short answer every time. In many cases that is true, however, if the shortest answer is not written in active voice, it is probably a wrong choice.

Science test tip:Many students tell us they run out of time on the science test. It’s a six-passage test with 40 questions… and you only get 35 minutes! Here is our number one tip to speed you up and improve your ACT science score:

Analyze all the graphs, tables and charts before you go to the questions.

I know, I know! You're thinking, “But my teacher said I should read the questions first, then hunt and seek for the answers.”

No offense to the thousands of teachers who say that, but it's not a great strategy. Our suggestion will speed you up, and ensure you understand what is being measured or studied in the passage.

Here’s what I mean when I say ‘analyze the data.’

Mark the high points, low points, and where the largest changes occur in the data.

For tables, denote the data trend. Is each column increasing, decreasing, constant or varying?

If given a line graph, also circle anywhere the lines cross or change direction.

If you analyze the data first, you have marked at least 50% of the correct answers, and you haven’t even read any of the passage yet! We've analyzed some tests where 70% of the correct answers came from annotating the points listed above.

Questions will ask about the points you marked on the charts, tables and graphs (high and low points, biggest changes in data, and increasing/decreasing trends). This tip will save you A TON of time on the science test.

BONUS SCIENCE TIP: If the data in a table column is varying (appears to randomly increase/decrease), you can safely ignore that column. ACT rarely asks a question about columns where data is 'all over the place.' If a table looks like the one below, they probably won’t ask you about anything in column C.

Note the annotation. I for increasing, D for decreasing, V for Varying and C for Constant. Mark up your tables like this! The tiny changes in column D are effectively constant.

Reading test tip: I'm always surprised by the number of students who say they don't mark up the reading passage as they work through the test. It's so helpful and will speed you up!

Know how to annotate well and mark up the passage. Here’s what you should mark (this tip can be used on the science and English passage too, because those sections also have a lot of reading):​

Proper nouns. You will be asked about people and places mentioned in the passage

Italicized phrases and anything in quotes (other than dialog). ACT uses italics and quotes to highlight important vocabulary.

If you see a list of items, things, feelings or actions, write an “L” or “List” in the margin. There WILL be questions about lists on every ACT. They are often the time consuming questions that start out with, “All of these, but…” or “Which of the following was NOT…” If you have marked a big “L” in the margin to denote a list, it’s easy to go back and see what isn’t in the list.

Any part of the passage that surprises you or uses very descriptive language. You will often be asked to infer author’s meaning based on those sections.

Here’s one example about surprising and descriptive language from an actual ACT passage. This sentence took up three lines in a 91-line passage:

“Jess,” Larry said, with a twinkle in his eye, “that grandson of yours stays so close to you he don’t hardly leave room enough for your shadow.”

Three of the ten questions about the passage asked about that one sentence. The descriptive language, "twinkle in his eye," and the surprising statement about "not leaving room for a shadow," must have captured the attention of the test writers. The sentence only makes up 3% of the entire passage length (3 out of 91 lines), but 30% of the questions asked about it. If it stood out to you, and you marked it while you were reading, you would be able find it again quickly. You wouldn't waste time searching for a very important section of the passage.

This is so important I’m going to say it again: Mark up (annotate) the passage as you read!

Here is a sample passage from an actual ACT, with annotation, so you can see how I do it, but feel free to use your own methods... as long as you are marking!

You can see I circle proper nouns, underline descriptive language that catches my eye, and write an 'L' in the margin where lists are found. You may miss a few things (like I did by not circling his uncle and grandfather's names), and you may mark things that are never asked about (like the list of vegetables grown in the garden), but that is O.K.! Annotating will speed you up and you will mark many correct answers!

English test tips: Don’t be afraid to select “No change”. That is the correct answer about 5-6 times on each ACT.

They often bunch up those 'no change' answers. We’ve seen tests where three or four consecutive questions have a correct answer of “no change”. It’s psychological warfare! The test writers are trying to get you to second guess yourself. If you are sure it should be ‘no change,’ don’t let the fact that the previous two answers were also ‘no change’ bother you.

Be sure to brush up on your grammar. Few high school students are getting good grammar instruction in their final two years of high school. The focus shifts to in-depth literary analysis in most classes, and many teachers don't emphasize grammar. You may have forgotten many rules. Practice tests are a great way to work on grammar skills. When you miss a question on an ACT English practice tests, take it to your teacher and ask them why your answer is incorrect, and what makes the correct answer the best choice. Your English teacher can explain the rule so you will know what to do the next time you see a similar question.

Always use direct modifiers. For example, "The burning wood..." may be a correct answer, but you can eliminate an answer that uses indirect modifiers like, "The wood that was burning..." Answers that move the modifier (burning) away from what they are modifying (wood) are almost always incorrect.

Math test tips: Math is different than other sections of the test. There aren’t any ‘tricks’ or strategies that will help. You just have to know how to do the math. You must know formulas and when to use them.

If you are currently taking AP calculus or another high-level math class, you MUST brush up on what you learned in pre-algebra, Algebra 1 and Geometry. Many high achieving students come to us because they are disappointed with their ACT math scores. They took basic classes 3-5 years ago and have forgotten much of the material the ACT tests. When we look at their score reports, they are often missing ‘easy’ questions. Brush up on the basics if you are struggling to get a great score.

Print out this formula sheet. You aren't allowed to use a formula sheet during the test, but the document will be helpful while you are studying. If you can’t fill in those formulas from memory, or you don’t understand when or how to use the formulas, you better brush up! To get help, go to a math teacher at your school or register for a Bluegrass Learning ACT Math class. We cover all the formulas on that sheet during our 3 hour math class.

Work on word problems! I see many kids come through our tutoring center who can solve problems when you give them numbers on a page, but the second I ask them a question using words they don't know how to solve it. Even though they understand the procedure required to solve the problem, they don't know how to set up an equation. Practice setting up equations from word problems. It will be a HUGE help on the ACT.

Finally, draw pictures! I'm not a math teacher, and the last math class I took was in 1993, so I often come across ACT math problems where I have no idea what to do (thank goodness I hire great math teachers). Even though I may not know the procedure or formula to use, I can often solve these problems by drawing a picture and using a little reasoning. If you find yourself in a similar situation on the ACT math section, save those questions for last, then if you have time, go back anddraw a picture and see if you can figure it out. One note of caution... don't waste time trying to figure out these problems UNTIL you have done all the problems you know how to do, and checked them for accuracy. If you have time at the end, then draw a picture and play around with the more difficult problems to see if you can solve any of them.

I hope the tips help you improve!

​If you would like to learn many more great ACT tips and strategies, come join us for a class. We would love to have you! You can see upcoming class dates and register for sessions by visiting this page. Register early! We only accept 20 students in each class.You can also register by calling us at 270-904-5949.

Sending your child off to school for the first day of kindergarten can be stressful for your child, and for you as a parent. This article from Parents Magazine has great tips from the American Medical Association. They explain how to overcome separation anxiety so the first day of school goes smoothly.

For a checklist of other kindergarten readiness skills, download this free 'skills checklist.' It comes from our Family Five parent video series and lists everything your child should know and be able to do upon entering kindergarten.

If your children are 'old pro's' going into higher grades, share this post with family or friends...especially those who are sending their first child off to kindergarten!

There is a horrible secret in the world of education technology. School leaders don’t want to discuss it and EdTech companies won’t admit it. An Assistant Superintendent or VP of Sales might even hire a hit man because I’m revealing it.

OK, it’s not that serious, but it is a big problem.

Don’t shoot the messenger, but here you go: Most EdTech initiatives undertaken in K-12 public schools fail.

I don’t have hard data to back that statement up. After all, who wants to measure something no one is willing to talk about? I do have more than a decade of working with schools, talking to educators and reading the news to tell me it’s probably true.

From what I’ve observed, new initiatives either die in spectacular fashion, never getting off the ground in a meaningful way, or they linger on for a few years (maybe 2 years, but rarely more than 4) before finally succumbing to a slow and painful death.

​Most are slow dying initiatives. The district selects a new product, rolls it out to students and teachers who stumble along for a few years, and they never see the expected results.

Usage is poor, teachers don’t look at data, a month is lost every year because the EdTech provider releases an update that conflicts with school computers… and the problems keep mounting. The district was hoping for a big impact and it just doesn’t happen.

These slow dying initiatives might help a few students here and there, but they often do more harm than good. They leave behind annoyed teachers, frustrated kids and administrators resigned to trying something new. The original problem hasn’t been solved, so they trudge forward to find a new solution, often repeating the same mistakes that led to the last failed initiative.

Fast dying initiatives are a little different. They also leave behind annoyed teachers and frustrated kids. The big difference is administrators are not worrying about finding new solutions. They’re too busy scrambling to save their jobs and reputations. See this story from NPR for a good example.

I’m not out to place blame on schools or EdTech companies. In a previous post, I wrote about how schools and parents often blame the other party for low student achievement. I said the time for blaming is over, and we need to work together to find solutions. That applies to this problem as well. Schools and EdTech providers can solve the problem… if they work together.

First, let’s define why it happens.

When schools buy a new technology product, whether it’s a hardware, software or subscription service (like an annual license to a curriculum product), they are trying to solve a problem. It could be high drop-out rates or 4th grade reading scores. They aren’t looking for a new product, they are looking to solve that problem.

When sales reps call on schools, they aren’t really selling a product or service. They are trying to convince the district to change the way they do something (hopefully, by using the rep’s products). Maybe they want the district to implement a web based credit recovery program, or replace their old computer based reading intervention for those 4th graders.

Schools want to solve a problem; Sales reps want the district to do something differently.

The issue isn’t that the two parties may have differing primary goals. The problem is that both parties want to move through the selection process either quickly or painlessly. ​

EdTech sales reps are almost always about speed. They want to elicit change in the district, book the order quickly, and move on to the next district. When asked, they will answer concerns like, “How are we going to fit this into our school’s schedule,” but they won’t be the one to bring it up. Raising issues will slow down the process… and that’s the last thing they want to do.

In rare instances, schools are also about speed. They may have a big problem they need fixed immediately, but more often they move slowly. That’s ok if they are being purposeful and deliberate, but usually it’s because they don’t want to expend a lot of effort. They just want to assign one or two people to the initiative, take a cursory look at one or two products, then half-heartedly roll out a solution and hope it works.

When speed or comfort is a primary motive for those involved, important steps in the process get skipped. That’s why implementations are failing.

So what can we do about it?

The tips in this post are for school administrators. That doesn’t mean EdTech companies are off the hook. We should also take a hard look at the support we are providing schools during all phases of an implementation, and not skip steps because we want to book an order quickly.

The US Department of Education is trying to help schools better evaluate new technology initiatives with their ‘Rapid Cycle Evaluations’ initiative. While they are focusing on the process, it’s just as important for you to look at the personnel making decisions in your district.

The individual or team identifying problems, and evaluating new solutions, must be comprised of members who have three core competencies. If even one of these competencies isn’t present, your implementations have a high chance for failure. You need a 'thinker,' a 'planner' and a 'doer.'

​When approaching a problem, forget all about technology at the beginning. You aren’t evaluating new programs yet. Now, you’re building a team to solve a problem. Maybe EdTech is the best solution, and maybe it isn't. Focus on building a team first, then have the team worry about what you need to buy or do.

The three competencies you need on a problem-solving team:​

Thinkers: This is a creative type who can study a problem and is willing to consider unconventional solutions. They are willing to dive deep, to truly understand the issue. Without a thinker on the team, you may end up with the 'same-old, same-old' solution you’ve been trying for years, or even worse, buy a product that doesn’t address the real problem. Sure, It might involve a new coat of paint (like a flashy new EdTech program), but it won’t address the fundamental flaws of the old methods.

This person is on the team to consider new approaches the other two core competencies may not consider. ‘Thinkers’ should be given a lot of leeway to make suggestions, even if the other team members think it’s a little crazy.

You can identify these people in your district by noticing those who:

LOVE research. Not necessarily hard data, but they enjoy learning about innovative solutions other schools and districts are trying.

Are willing to dive deep on a problem. They won’t accept the simple answers and want to truly understand why you haven’t been able to solve the problem yet.

Like to suggest new ways of doing things. Others may think they are dreamers, and it could never work that way, but they are willing to try new things.

Often ask “Why do we do it this way?” That question shows they are thinking about new ways to fix a problem

Planners: They think in concrete terms. You need a planner on the team to ensure you have a successful roll-out.

​Again, we don’t know if that’s an EdTech solution or something else at this point. For now, the planner is used to evaluate suggestions and identify roadblocks to success.

​You can identify ‘planners’ by noticing members of your staff who:

Make detailed lists

Must know all steps of a process before moving forward with anything.

May appear negative at times. Others may say they identify problems and don't see the potential for success.

Are the first to recognize a problem before it occurs. They may come to you with an issue no one else has foreseen.

May move slowly. They want to consider all possible outcomes before moving forward and starting to work.

That brings us to the third core competency:​

Doers: These people get things done. You need a 'doer' on the team to keep the planners and thinkers moving in the right direction.

​Without a doer, your team will get bogged down studying the problem, dreaming up new solutions, or planning until the potential roadblocks look so insurmountable they decide it’s easier not to do anything. Doers in your district are people who:

Jump in and start working on any new project…even if they don’t have a clear picture of what you are trying to accomplish. They just want to get to work.

Want to power-through and complete tasks

Are happy to start work on a project without a detailed road-map. Their goal is finishing, even if it’s not a perfect solution.

May move too quickly. They want a solution now, may not truly understand the problem, or might not have considered potential roadblocks.

What happens when you try to solve a problem without all three core competencies?

When you have a thinker and planner, but no doer: A solution never gets implemented. The thinker may study the issue and suggest great solutions, but the planner keeps finding reasons it won’t work.

“It doesn’t fit into the school’s schedule.”

“The teachers won’t be willing to do that.”

“It would put too much strain on our budget.”

“Our hardware might not run it.”

Notice, those problems can be solved, but the ‘planner’ may never see the solutions. If there is no doer on the team, the ‘planner’ keeps identifying problems and no action takes place. When that happens, you’re stuck with business as usual.

You need a ‘doer’ to push the team forward so something actually gets accomplished.

If your district is constantly studying problems and planning new initiatives, but never really changing anything, your teams are full of thinkers and planners. If that’s the case, find a ‘doer’ and turn them loose.

​Then share this quote from General Patton with the rest of the team:

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.

​When you have a planner and doer, but no thinker, you:

May not truly understand the problem

May put a new skin on the same tired solutions that haven’t worked in the past.

One example of not truly understanding the problem:

12 years ago, I was a new sales rep for a company that had a full suite of K-12 EdTech solutions. From literacy programs for preschool students, up through high school credit recovery programs… and everything in between. In a meeting with a Superintendent he said:

“My high schools need help. Our elementary and middles do great, well above the state average on all assessments. But when the kids get to high school they are struggling to do the coursework. It’s causing a problem with our dropout rates. I want to do something for high school credit recovery so those kids have another path to stay in school.”

If I had to guess, this Superintendent is a planner and doer, but he might not have thought about the problem deeply. He sees an issue, high school dropout rates, and jumps in to solve that problem quickly, by putting a credit recovery program in place.

The Superintendent would have been well served to ask a ‘thinker’ to participate in the process. That person might have said,

“Wait a minute. Our elementary and middles are ‘doing great?’ Then why are our kids so unprepared for high school? Sure, we need to implement a credit recovery program, but will that fix the underlying problem? Our state assessment data may look good in elementary and middle, but maybe we should also look at how we can better prepare kids there. If we can figure that out, they won’t even need credit recovery once they get to high school.”

The ‘thinker’ could have brought some fresh ideas to the table the Superintendent had not considered.​

​Doubling down on failed strategies:

The last two years, I've been calling on educators to discuss parent involvement. Here is a typical scenario I keep encountering... over and over and over.

The school is concerned about family engagement, specifically, parents who are not supporting their child's education at home. The principal knows it is important and wants to help.

She has tried to support her families by holding family math and family literacy night once or twice a year.

The principal has a big problem: no one shows up to her events. If she's lucky, she gets 10-20% parent participation. That's 50-100 parents in a 500 student school...and that's the top end. Many schools are seeing 5% or less.

The principal decides to solve the problem the only way she knows how: hold more events.

She starts hosting lunch and learns, morning breakfast meetings, and increases the frequency of evening events from once a semester, to once per month. She calls in the local media to cover her events and help get the word out.

After all her planning and doing, the results don’t change. Parents still refuse to show up. Her kids continue to go home to families struggling to support their education.

If I had to guess at the principal’s core competencies, she is a ‘planner’ and ‘doer,’ but not a great ‘thinker.’ That sounds bad when you say it out loud, but I don’t mean that she can’t think.

I mean she did a great job of recognizing a problem (poor parental support at home). She then planned all these new events and pulled them off flawlessly, demonstrating she can ‘do’ as well as ‘plan,’ but her solution wasn’t really any different than what she had tried in the past (in-person events no one would attend).

don't want to attend events at school because they had bad experiences in the past.

are busy working two jobs and just can’t find the time to attend any event, no matter how many are scheduled.

have a cultural belief that education is solely the schools responsibility and they don’t need to provide support at home.

There are a lot more reasons that could be added to that list. A ‘thinker’ might conduct a parent survey to discover the real reason no one is attending. She may go out to the car rider line and ask some parents. She would dig deep to figure out why parents won't show up. But the principal didn't consult anyone, and she jumped into planning and doing mode.

One thing to watch for: People with differing core competencies may not work well together.​

The principal might have some difficulty listening to a ‘thinker.' When presented with an innovative solution, our 'planner' principal might only see potential problems. She would need to fight that impulse and make sure the ‘doer’ part of her personality didn’t take a back seat.

But if she was willing to open up her team and pull in a thinker, she may hear suggested solutions she hasn’t considered.

The ‘thinker’ might remember reading this study about a parent engagement text messaging program in San Francisco. Or this one that showed parent home support increased when families were sent short, actionable emails once a week. Those solutions helped families provide better support at home, and neither one required parents to attend an eventat school.

The thinker might even say, “I’ve heard of this devilishly handsome guy in Kentucky who has a program that might help. Let’s take look at that.” She might not use those exact words, but I imagine that’s how the conversation would go down.​

The most dangerous combination is when you have a thinker and doer on the team, but no planner.

This leads to fast dying initiatives that end up on the front page of your local newspaper. They are expensive boondoggles that harm careers.

That might explain what happened with the failed iPad initiative in LAUSD. Someone had a great idea for a one-to-one device initiative, and they jumped immediately into ‘doing’ mode.

If you read the article, you will notice there was a ‘planner’ at the table who identified potential problems, but it seems like he was marginalized during the decision-making process.

Jaime Aquino, the district's former head of curriculum, expressed reservations about the cost, infrastructure readiness and timing of the iPad/Pearson plan.

When creating your teams, make sure each core competency has a voice. It won’t do you any good if the strongest personality gets to make all the decisions.

​In the LAUSD example, it sounds like the Superintendent (our thinker and doer), dismissed the concerns of his ‘planner.’

I'm not going to be interested in looking at third-graders and saying, 'Sorry, this is the year you don't learn to read,' or to juniors and saying, 'You don't get to graduate.' So the pace needs to be quick, and we make no apologies for that.

​Pull it all together so you can make good decisions:

​​

Share the ‘thinker, planner, doer’ theory with your people and ask them to self-evaluate. What are they good at? What don’t they do well? Compare their rankings to what you know about the person.

Once you have an idea where your people stand, pick a problem you’ve had in the district for a while, select your team members and ask them to analyze it. Ensure all three core competencies are represented.

Ask the ‘thinker’ team member (or committee) to analyze the problem and identify a few potential solutions. Encourage them to dig deep and truly understand what’s causing the problem, then dream big and come up with innovative solutions.

Have your ‘planners’ evaluate all suggestions coming from the ‘thinkers.’ Tell them not to be dismissive of any solution. You just want a report on potential problems you may encounter.

Planners also need to start thinking about the steps it would take to have a successful implementation. They can start thinking about tech specs, training, scheduling, data analysis and overseeing usage. At the very least, they will want to compile a list of questions for the companies you may be considering.

Ask your ‘doers’ to coordinate and oversee the project. Have them put deadlines to the other team members (i.e. "Put together a list of three potential solutions. We need it by the first of next month”). They also need to make sure the other team members don't get bogged down. Watch for the 'planners' to fall into 'that will never work' mode. Their strong opinions can derail a project.

Recognize your own strengths and weaknesses.

​In my experience, senior district leadership are almost always ‘doers.’ There’s a reason you rose to your current position. You get things done.

But you may or may not be a ‘thinker’ or ‘planner.’ Maybe you couldn’t come up with an innovative solution to a problem if your life depended on it. That’s OK, as long as you recognize it.

Maybe you can study a problem deeply, and come up with innovative solutions, but realize you need to delegate the ‘planning’ work to others. That’s OK too, if you delegate to someone who is a strong ‘planner.’ But it can be a big problem if you delegate to another ‘doer.’ When that happens, no one is watching out for potential problems.

Give equal voice to thinkers, planners and doers. It will improve your chances for success… and NPR won't have to conduct an autopsy on your decisions.

If you found this post helpful, share it with a colleague. If you would like to be notified when we post new articles (1-3 times per month), add your email to our sign-up form over in the sidebar.​

Author

Joe Deaton is founder and President of Bluegrass Learning. He is a 'thinker' and 'doer' who get's planning help from the 'Negative Nancy's' on his team, who love to throw the cold water of reality on his brilliant ideas.

It is easier for you to learn new information when you have a strong vocabulary. Research has shown that it helps with more than learning. A strong vocabulary has also been linked to income level and upward mobility.

Robert Marzano and Isabel Beck are two influential education researchers who study vocabulary development in children. I won’t be able to do them justice in a short article so you may want to go directly to the source to learn more. Both researchers have books, papers and videos that are easy to find with a simple internet search.

Children must encounter words in context, more than once- Reading or hearing a word once or twice isn’t enough. Most children need to be exposed to a new word at least six times before they understand.

You must actively teach your child new words- Children who were told about new words BEFORE encountering them in context (like in a book) are much more likely to learn the word the next time they encounter it.

Associate the word with an Image- Kids are more likely to remember a word they can tie to an image. When working on new words, show your child what you are talking about (a picture in a book or the actual item).

Teaching new vocabulary helps children do better in ALL subjects, not just reading- Many “academic” words are used in multiple subjects. Learning those words will help your child in math, science and social studies. The information below about Dr. Beck’s research will also address this point.

Teach your child new words just before she will need them- Before heading to the playground, a park or on a vacation, talk with your child about words she may encounter. It’s a powerful way to learn new words.

Dr. Isabel Beck has researched how to best teach children difficult vocabulary and she has some great tips. Dr. Beck believes we should focus on what she calls “tier 2” academic words. Let’s define what she means:

Tier 1 words: The social language we naturally pick up by interacting with other people. Very little instruction needs to be done in this area. Most children quickly learn these words through exposure.

Tier 2 words: Words that appear frequently, in multiple academic subjects and readings, but are rarely encountered in social conversations. To have the biggest impact when working with your child, focus on direct instruction of tier two words (start with the list at the bottom of this article).These words often have more than one meaning, depending on how they are used. For example, a ruler can be a measuring device or the leader of a country.

Tier 3 words: Content specific words that have only one meaning. For example: Isotope, electron, continent and trapezoid. Dr. Beck suggests teaching these words as needed, when children encounter them in school work.

You must be able to explain the word to your child in a simple way. If the language you use to explain is more difficult than the word you are trying to teach, it won’t work.

Your child must understand the underlying concept. For example, if your daughter understands the word “happy,” she can easily learn ‘ecstatic’. If she knows “sad,” then she can learn “forlorn.”

“Obstacle” is another example Dr. Beck uses. This word occurs frequently in multiple subjects throughout school. If your four-year-old understands the concept of “It’s in my way”, she can easily learn the word “obstacle.”

​I have included a list of common tier 2 words below, but there are MANY more. Search the internet for additional lists and begin working on them today!

Tier 2 Words

As you work with your child remember many of these words have more than one meaning!

Here is an example to help you get started:

It's Christmas at your home and your daughter wants to know what's in the big present under the tree. You could say:​"You want to know what's in this big present? You sure are curious! It is a big one. I would even say it's gigantic. You can open it after dinner. Look at all this food! We're going to have a feast!"

In that 10 second conversation, you dropped in three Tier 2 words from the list (curious, gigantic and feast). You did it in a fun, natural and organic way.

You also tied all three words to something your child already knows:

"I Want to know..." was tied to 'curious'

'Big' was tied to 'gigantic'

"all this food..." was tied to 'feast'

Once your daughter has heard the word 'curious' a few times, you can read a 'Curious George' book to help the word stick.

Have conversations like this with your child, follow up with reading and writing examples, and point out the word when you encounter it "in the wild," like at the store or on a sign. You will help her learn some very difficult words at an early age.

Remember to keep it fun and natural!Your child will develop a rich and robust vocabulary that will help pave the way for success in school and life.

This paragraph is written on an 7th grade level. Actually, I ran it through a tool to get a ‘readability score’ and it came in at a grade level of 7.1, which is slightly lower than the average reading level for adults in the United States. Calling it 7th grade is close enough. The rest of this paragraph includes a tip for writing to parents. When you write for families, it should be very easy to read. If it isn’t, parents may not understand what you send them and your message will not be heard.

Now buckle up while I say the same thing again.

This paragraph is written on a college level. It was analyzed using a readability calculator that assigns a Flesch-Kincaid grade level equivalency and it scored a 14. Actually, it came in at 14.1, which is higher than the college and career readiness benchmark for graduating seniors, but rounding it down to 14 is adequate for our purposes. The remaining information in this paragraph addresses the importance of writing so family members understand your communications. While it is essential for educators to provide letters, documents, forms and tip sheets to parents, guardians and caregivers, while doing so they must remember to write at an appropriate level. If you compose these documents at a level which is too high for the average reader, you should realize that many family members will find it difficult to understand your message.

Do the above paragraphs basically say the same thing? Unfortunately, most school documents for families sound like the second paragraph. Research from the US Department of Education suggests up to 85% of parents may struggle to understand content written at that level.

We know how important it is for families to be 'involved,’ ‘engaged,’ or ‘empowered.’ We even know what type of parent involvement is most effective. Student performance increases when parents set high expectations and work on learning activities at home.

​So why do parents struggle to do these two things?

Many well-meaning educators are quick to answer by blaming poverty, low levels of parent education or poor parental attitudes. I won’t dispute those issues are real, and part of the problem, but we also need to shine a light on how schools are trying to engage and support families.

In a previous blog post, I pointed out the need for schools to reconsider their tendency to only provide support to families via in-person events at school. Now it's time to look at how we can improve school-to-home written communications.

We’ve known for almost a century that the average reading level for adults in the United States is somewhere in the 7th-9th grade range. It fluctuates depending on the report you choose to believe.

Knowing many adults struggle to read and understand basic information, you would think schools would write content for parents at a reading level appropriate for the audience. Pull up your district or school website, read a Superintendent’s blog post, or check your school, district or state's ‘parent newsletter.’ You’ll probably find content that’s written at a college (or graduate school) level.

After reviewing thousands of school-to-home documents over the last two years I can safely say this is a systemic problem. Way too many documents for parents clock in with a grade level equivalancy which would be appropriate for a graduate school writing assignment.

​Why are we writing at this level if parents struggle to understand it?

One disclaimer: Using ‘grade level equivalency’ (GLE) isn’t the most accurate way to discuss adult literacy levels, but it is easy to understand, so that’s what I’ll be using in this article. If you want a more in-depth understanding of adult literacy and how it’s measured, explore this page from US ED.

Here are a few examples of writing pieces created by educators, for parents:

Example 1: Parent ‘tip sheet’ The following paragraph comes from a tip sheet titled, “Is your child ready for reading in kindergarten?” It was created by a state department of education. Many schools and districts in the state are including it on their website, under ‘Helpful Links for Parents.’

​“Early attempts and approximations at standard writing (often viewed as “just scribbles” by adults) are legitimate elements of literacy development. Children’s acquisition of writing typically follows general developmental stages, and individual children will become writers at different rates and through a variety of activities. Learning to write involves much more than learning to form alphabet letters.”

Grade Level Equivalency (GLE) of that paragraph: 15.5

This opening statement is the first thing on the tip sheet, in the top left corner. Many parents will never read the helpful tips further down the sheet. They will give up after struggling to understand the first paragraph.

Ironically, the statement is found under the heading “Writing for a specific purpose and audience.” I’ll let you decide if the state DOE is doing that.

Here is how the section could be rewritten:

“Children move through stages as they learn to write. ‘Just scribbling’ is normal, and may be the first thing your child does. Some children will move through the stages quickly, and some may need more time. There are many activities you can do to help your child, but keep in mind not all activities help all children. Don't worry If an activity isn’t working for your child, just try something else. Learning to write is much more than writing ABC’s.”

​GLE of revised paragraph: 4.9

Did the edits change the message, or does it essentially say the same thing?​

Example 2: ‘Parent Newsletter’ from a State Department of Education:The following sentence was found in an article about state accountability results. The purpose is to let families know how schools will use the data.

“Superintendents, school boards, principals, school-based decision-making councils and teachers must review and analyze the data to determine what instructional changes need to occur and which students may need additional interventions in order to be successful."

GLE: 21.4

In all fairness, the entire article scored a 10.5 (still above the average reading level for adults), however, like many writing pieces we reviewed it includes pockets of language many parents will struggle to understand. The author is well meaning, but the article will fail to connect with most families.

Look at how that section could be re-written:“Your child’s school and district will look at how each child performed on the test. The results help the school decide if they need to change the way they teach certain skills and concepts. The school will also use each child’s test scores to identify students who are struggling. Those students will get extra help at school.”Grade level equivalency: 4.6

As it was originally written, we can estimate only 15% of parents would understand a sentence found in a “Parent Newsletter.”

Example 3: SNOW DAY!I don’t envy Superintendent’s here in my home state of Kentucky. We’re a little too far north to completely avoid snow and ice, and a little too far south to do a good job of keeping the roads clear.

A few times each winter, district leaders must make a tough decision: “Should we cancel or delay school?”

They can keep school in session and hope children arrive safely, or they can cancel and field calls all morning from upset parents who don’t understand the decision. After all, “The road in front of my house is clear!”

Most districts try to head off upset parents by explaining their school closing policy. Here’s a sentence from a ‘inclement weather policy’ posted prominently on a district website:

“As early as 3:00 a.m., if snow, freezing rain, sleet or other dangerous precipitation presents [sic] our Director of Transportation and Deputy Superintendent/Chief Operations Officer set out to inspect the road conditions.”

GLE: 20.4

The district probably hopes posting the policy will reduce the number of calls they get from upset parents when school is cancelled. I doubt it’s working. The reading level is too high.

To be fair, the entire policy is written at a 12.2 GLE, which is still too high, but here’s the big takeaway: Including this sentence near the beginning of the announcement will cause most parents to stop reading.

Here’s what that sentence could be:“When we get snow, sleet or freezing rain, district leaders go out early to check the roads.”GLE: 5.6

I ask again: Does the change in wording affect the overall message?

Example 4: Pot, meet kettle.It's easy to pick apart the writing style of state and district administrators, but we make the same mistakes here at Bluegrass Learning. Our Family Five program is designed to teach parents how to support learning at home.

Here is an opening sentence from our print article about vocabulary development. It’s supposed to supplement a parent video on PreK language development.

“Numerous research studies have proven that a strong vocabulary directly impacts a person’s ability to understand and learn new information.”

GLE: 16.4

The article is one of the first things we produced, and it is riddled with similar language throughout the entire piece. Thankfully, we’ve gotten much better.

As it was originally written, most parents won’t be able to understand our tips and suggestions. My huge intellect got in the way of actual communication (that’s a joke in case you were wondering).

Here’s a rough draft of how the sentence may sound when I’m finished editing:“Many experts agree. When you have a strong vocabulary, it is much easier for you to learn new information.”​GLE: 6.7

What about teachers?While I have noticed senior administrators are more likely to write above the reading level of the average parent, many teachers also struggle. They do well with short, personal notes. As the writing pieces get longer, they revert to a style that would be more at home in a college class. We have found that many parents struggle to understand class newsletters and‘beginning of year’ teacher letters.

I hire current and retired teachers to write video scripts for Family Five. Before they start writing I say:

“Remember, this is for parents…ALL parents. I don’t want an academic paper. Imagine you are sitting across the table and speaking with a parent who may not have a great education. Write in a conversational tone, in plain language. When you think you are finished with a lesson, read it out loud and ask: Is this how I would speak to a parent?”

While my directions are simple, you would be surprised to read the first drafts teachers submit. Almost without exception, they are dry, academic, and contain education jargon without any explanation of what the terms mean.

Thankfully, I hire great teachers who are open to feedback…and have a sense of humor. When they submit a script written at a high difficulty level, I hand it back and say, “Go ahead and hold on to this. It will feel right at home in your doctoral dissertation, but it’s not helpful for most parents. We need to make some changes.”​

How to fix your parent documents:

Writing plainly is easy, but it takes quite a bit of practice. Today, your style might be more appropriate for graduate level term papers, federal grant applications and operating procedures for your schools. You may be comfortable with that style, but if you want to reach more families you must learn to write plainly.

Here are steps you can take to ensure your school or district is sharing readable material:​1. Pick a readability calculator and learn how to use it.

For ease-of-use, you can’t beat the Flesch-Kincaid analyzer built into Microsoft Word.Turn on the option in your settings and it will automatically calculate a score when you run ‘spell check.’ It allows you to easily check the entire document or just a selection, like a sentence or paragraph. The results will look like this:​

​Aim for an 8th grade reading level or lower. You might be surprised when you take a document currently written at an above college level, rewrite it in plain language (with no loss of meaning), and end up with a document on a 4th or 5th grade level. Reading it won’t prove to anybody how smart you are, but it will be something most parents can easily understand.

If you prefer Lexile levels, try the Lexile analyzer from Meta-Metrics. It’s not as user-friendly, and you must register to use it, but it will give you an accurate Lexile level. I have a couple of issues with the Lexile tool; It only accepts plain text files and you have to make sure the file is saved in the correct encoding (ASCII) or you may get errors.

2. Evaluate parent communications you already use:Now that you’ve picked a readability tool, use it to evaluate:

​A. Printed documents you send home to parents- Learning-at-home tip sheets, school registration packets, district and school newsletters, School-Parent Compacts, Student Handbooks, etc. If it goes home to mom and dad, run it through the analyzer to see where you are today. If you are seeing 11th-12th grade levels and above, many parents will struggle to understand the document.

B. Your website copy: Pay attention to the home page and your “Parents” page. They should be welcoming and easy to read.

Here is an example of what to avoid (I don’t want to point fingers so district name has been changed).

“Barnett County Public Schools recognizes that family and community engagement is essential as we partner to educate our students and prepare them for life-long learning. BCPS envisions a districtwide culture that promotes collaborative partnerships to support student learning, enrich educational experiences, and prepare students to excel as successful citizens in a global society. Once parents, teachers, and community members view one another as partners in education, a caring community forms around students, helping to ensure success.”

GLE: 18.2

That’s the opening paragraph on the district’s ‘family and community’ page.

My best guess? It’s helpful for school employees and 15% of the parents they serve. The remaining 85% of parents will find the district's ‘family page' too difficult to read.

C. Downloadable docs and links on your website: I’ve seen quite a few schools and districts post “Helpful links for parents" that send families to external pages many parents will struggle to understand.

A favorite in many districts is ASCD’s Lexicon of Learning, an online glossary of education terms. While you may think it will help parents understand education jargon, most of the definitions are written at a reading level way too high for the average parent.

Their definition of ‘assessment’ is four paragraphs long. Here is the first:

“A test or evaluation of what a student knows and is able to do.”GLE: 5.8

While the ASCD definition is much more thorough, consider this: Why are you posting the link? If a parent doesn’t know what the word ‘assessment’ means, would it be more helpful to show them the ASCD definition, or the one from the Prichard Committee?​

​D. Your district and schools ‘Parent Engagement Policy:’ Forgive me for sounding like a parent complaining about school closures, but this one is a personal pet peeve. Too many parent engagement policies are nothing more than cut and pasted statements lifted from federal Title 1 requirements. Can you imagine anything less parent-friendly than legislative language? It says to me, and more importantly to your families, that you put zero thought into your plan and parent engagement is not a priority in your district.

Take a long, hard look at the district and school policies. If they are written so the average parent can’t read and understand them, you are missing out on a valuable resource. It will be tough for families to provide input on improving parent engagement if they are unable to understand your policy as it’s currently written.

E. Your district and school improvement plans:This is your opportunity to shine. Write them so most parents can easily understand your vision for the future. You can give more families a voice, and they might be able to provide unique viewpoints you haven’t considered. That’s only going to happen if parents find the plan easy to read.

While writing this post, I pulled up a random district website and saw a link to their ‘Strategic Plan,’ right there on the homepage. Goal number one is deeper learning. Great!

​Let’s look at ‘Strategy 1.1.1,’ the very first thing they hope to do:

“Adopt a broader definition of learning: Align teaching strategies, assessments, and rigorous learning opportunities that promote student mastery of academic knowledge and the development of the capacities (e.g., creativity, critical thinking, self-regulation) and dispositions (e.g., persistence, empathy, responsibility) necessary for success in life.”

GLE: 24.3

​Most parents will never read past the first strategy...because they can’t.

For what it’s worth, here is how I would edit that statement:​“Look at learning in new ways: We will look at how we teach students, how we test them, and how we give each child a chance to learn at high levels. We will make sure teaching, testing and learning are tied together. This will give students more than knowledge. They will learn social skills, coping skills and how to be creative, thoughtful, caring and persistent.”GLE: 5.6

It’s not perfect, but at least parents will be able to understand it.

3. Re-write any documents you deem ‘not readable.’

Writing simply isn't difficult. It’s just a shift in mindset and the use of plain language. When writing for parents, try this:

Change ‘assessment’ to ‘test’

Remove ‘Collaborate’ and replace with ‘work together’

Change ‘stakeholders’ to ‘we’

Change ‘administrator’ to ‘Principal’ or ‘leader’

Stop using ‘Parents, guardians and caregivers’ and start using ‘families’

Break long compound sentences into two or three sentences. Drop the jargon and ask yourself the tough questions. Do you have to use the words ‘Tiers of Intervention’ when talking with families about RtI?

Try to find an alternative version of the 4 and 5 syllable words you use in more technical writing. Don’t get hung up on providing a ‘perfect’ explanation. Do they really need all those details?

When writing new pieces, frequently check your work with the readability tool to ensure you are on the right track. After a while it will become second nature.

If your district has a public relations staff, enlist their help, especially if you have former journalists. They know how to write about complex issues in very simple language, for an audience of average and below-average readers.

​4. Be open to constructive criticism:

A few months ago I overheard something upsetting. I was presenting about parent engagement to a group of school Family Resource Coordinators here in Kentucky. After providing real-world examples of ‘tough to read’ school messages, I suggested they speak up when they see this happening at their school. One of the Coordinators muttered to her neighbor, “Yeah, like I’m really going to tell my principal he needs to change his writing style.”

This Coordinator’s entire job is supporting families, and she has decided not to suggest improvements because her principal might get upset. She learned something that could help children and families, and she’s not going to speak up because an adult coworker might get their feelings hurt.

That type of working environment should be unacceptable in any school. I hope it is unacceptable in your district.

No one likes to be criticized, but both parties should realize the suggestion is not a personal attack. It’s made from concern for students and families. We should strive to be kind in our suggestions and be open when others point out a way we can improve.

One final point to consider. The Flesch-Kincaid tool in Microsoft Word scored this article at an 8.4 (after removing all the ‘difficult to read’ examples). If you learned something from an article written at an 8th grade level, what will your families learn when you give them documents they can understand?

Author

Joe Deaton is Founder and President of Bluegrass Learning. He and his team have spent the last 4 years trying to answer the research question "Why do schools struggle to engage so many families."

​In early August each year, 5 year-olds across Kentucky take their first official test in our public schools. The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) just released the Kindergarten Readiness (K-Ready) results from the 2016-17 school year.

The ‘all students’ group has shown almost no growth in the last 3 years. In 2014, 50.0% of students were deemed ‘ready for kindergarten.’ Last year, that rose to 50.1%. There was no change this year, with ‘all students’ still at 50.1%.

​There are some bright spots in the data.

The number of African American children ‘ready for kindergarten’ increased from 44.5% in 2015 to 46.9% this year. It’s easy to lose perspective when looking at percentages. Here's what the numbers mean.

In the fall of last year, 2,144 African American children in Kentucky arrived to their first day of school ‘ready’ for kindergarten. 2,711 were ‘not ready.

This year, 2,277 African American children in Kentucky were ‘ready for kindergarten.’ 2.578 were not. 133 additional students were well prepared to enter school.

If you are wondering why these numbers are important, picture those 133 kids. They have a much better chance of success, not just in school but throughout life, because they entered school ready to learn. They will get better grades and are less likely to have behavior problems. They will be better adjusted socially and are less likely to experience mental health issues later in life. They are more likely to get into college. They will get better jobs, pay more taxes and be more involved in their communities than those children who show up to school ‘not ready.’

Research tells us those 133 kids will grow up healthier, happier and more productive citizens of Kentucky because they arrived at school ‘ready for kindergarten.’

One big question remains: If this is so important, why aren’t we improving at a faster rate? No growth in the ‘all students’ category over three years should be unacceptable.

​I spend a lot of time around educators. I hire them exclusively (all my employees are current or retired teachers) and many of our customers are school administrators. If you ask educators to define the problem, you will likely hear some version of ‘It’s the parents fault.’ They may be a little more diplomatic, but the underlying sentiment will be there. Very few will say “Our district is not doing a good job of supporting families.”

I also spend a lot of time around parents. We tutor their children, answer their questions about school and ask for their input when we create new products and services. If you ask one of those parents why their child is ‘not ready’ for kindergarten, they are likely to blame the preschool or daycare, the structure of the test, or the way the teacher administered it. Very few will admit they didn’t do a good job preparing their child. Those who do will say it’s because they didn’t know how.

Therein lies the problem. Two groups of people (our schools and the family) have a shared responsibility for a child’s development and educational achievement. Instead of working well together, they often place blame on the other party.

If we are honest about it, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Some parents could make a better effort to work with the school. Most schools could do a better job of supporting families. I’m sure that statement will upset some people, but that’s OK. It might be time for a few of us to get upset.

Playing the blame game has led to three years of zero growth in our kindergarten readiness numbers. The time for blaming is over. Now we need to reconsider our attitudes and approaches and try to find solutions.

​Take a look at the K-Ready results based on prior setting.

Children who attended district preschools are improving, from 44.9% ‘ready’ in 2013 to 49.5% this year. That’s a very nice increase and shows the quality of public preschool programs is improving. It is great news considering there are more students in state funded preschool programs than any other prior setting, but look at the second most popular setting.

Children who stay at home prior to entering school, meaning they didn’t attend head start, preschool or go to private daycare, are the lowest performing group by prior setting. Nearly 2 out of 3 kids who 'stayed at home' are unprepared for kindergarten. 36.1% 'ready' is the lowest percentage in the last four years. We are moving in the wrong direction.

Private groups in Kentucky are trying to address this issue. The United Way, with funding assistance from Toyota and other sponsors, should be commended for their Born Learning programs.

Are they showing success? I would guess they are, but It’s tough to determine by only looking at the information publicly available on their website. The only case study they provide is a little old (downloadable file linked at bottom of this page) and most of the data is related to parent perceptions about the program, not hard data on how many students they have helped become ‘kindergarten ready.’

If we can get better data showing effectiveness, the state may want to consider helping schools exand the program.

The United Way and Toyota are not the only people trying to help. Our public school and Head Start leaders are clamoring for more funding so they can serve more students. I don’t know enough about KY’s budget situation to say if it’s feasible. I’ll leave that up to the policy makers in Frankfort to decide.

I do know the return on investment for high quality preschool programs is substantial. Legislatorsshould consider that when determining budgets.

While additional funding could help, school administrators waiting around for that to happen are making a mistake. We need to do a better job of supporting those ‘home’ children today, and not wait on private foundations or Frankfort to step up with funding.

Even if funding increases, the question of making universal preschool mandatory is controversial. Many families will prefer to keep their children at home until kindergarten and they should have that option.

​So the question remains, how do we help these families?

Some districts have considered, or are trying:

Home visits:Well-designed programs are highly effective for families who receive multiple support visits over time. One or two visits just before school begins isn’t going to produce results. The biggest roadblock to implementing an effective program is cost. It’s a long-term solution with a high chance of success, but it will require a big financial commitment, from private, local, state and federal funding sources. Kindergarten boot camps (where kids come to school 1-2 weeks over the summer): It can help a child with the social and emotional aspects of the first day of school, but it doesn’t do much for their academic and cognitive preparedness or physical development. If the family hasn’t supported the development of language skills in the last 5 years, 1-2 weeks may help the child get comfortable with school routines, but it isn’t going to help with overall readiness.Parent Universities and Family Nights can be beneficial, especially if they are ongoing and not just a one-time event. The biggest issue is getting enough parents to participate over multiple sessions.

Schools love to hold in-person events, but many parents choose not to participate. I’ve heard school administrators say ‘the best form of parent engagement is in-person and face-to-face.’ That sounds great in theory.

In my opinion, assuming all parents want to engage in the exact same way is a huge mistake. When districts insist on only providing face-to face meeting opportunities, they are trying to force all parents into the same box.

Our interviews with parents have shown many are not interested in attending events at school, even when those events address issues they care about deeply. Families want to learn how they can help their child. For a variety of reasons, many parents do not want to come to an event.

I sit on an advisory council for a middle school’s Youth Service Center here in Kentucky. At the beginning of the year, the coordinator sent a survey home to more than 600 parents. They were asked to identify issues their child needed help with the most. Over 500 families responded.

Top 3 things parents said their teen needed help with:

Job and employment training

Self-esteem

Fitting in

The next question asked parents to identify health issues that interfere with their child’s learning.

The top three answers were:

Sleep

Nutrition

Mental health issues

None of this is surprising considering we are talking about 7th and 8th graders. Here is what is surprising: The next question asked parents if they are interested in attending a learning event at school about any of the topics. Only 31% answered ‘yes.’

This is a high achieving school, with few children living in poverty. The responding parents are engaged in their child’s lives and care deeply about education. I would venture to guess there aren’t many schools in Kentucky with more concerned and engaged parents. They identify issues they are deeply concerned about, yet almost 70% say they are unwilling to come to a school event to learn more about that topic.

Think about that for a second. Engaged parents, at a high achieving school, said they have no desire to get help by attending an event at school. They would prefer to figure it out on their own, or access self-help information.

When schools take a position that requires families to only get support at in-person events, they are choosing not to serve many families. Some recent research highlights this point.

‘The Execution Trap,’ from the July 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR), talks about how businesses communicate with customers. It’s relevant for school administrators who are trying to engage families.

The article talks about a bank that tried to force their tellers to interact with each customer in the exact same way. They revised the policy after noticing their highest performing tellers were ignoring it. Instead, they were treating different types of customers in a different way, based on the needs of the individual.

“Most customers these days demonstrate a huge — and increasing — appetite for self-service, yet most companies run their operations as if customers prefer to interact with them live.

​In our research on this topic (HBR article “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers“), we’ve found that corporate leaders dramatically overestimate the extent to which their customers actually want to talk to them.”

While both of those articles are business focused, you can’t help but see how it relates to the family engagement efforts of our schools.

Administrators must acknowledge some parents are not interested in attending events, and begin offering support to those families.​

There are some innovative practices most schools haven’t tried yet.

San Francisco Unified School District has a text message program for preschool parents. Parents sign up and get frequent messages telling them what they can do to help their child prepare for school. After six years, the results are promising.

The Ohio Department of Education has a similar system, but I signed up 3 months ago and have only received one text message in that time. They’ve either abandoned the system, or they recognized I’m a Kentuckian and removed me from the mailing list.

A study by Matthew Kraft, of Brown University and Todd Rogers, of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, looked at the effectiveness of frequently emailing parents (link to working paper, full study can be found here). It showed how frequent, light-touch communications can change parent behavior and improve student-parent interactions. The study looked at parents with children in high school, but the lessons learned could be applied to preschool families.

My team and I continue to work on this as well. We have been building Family Five for the last two years. It’s a series of short videos, in English and Spanish, that show parents simple, at-home learning activities they can use to prepare their child for kindergarten.

While I wish we could say Family Five is a silver bullet, it’s not. Producing great content for families is half the battle. Schools then need to develop and execute a plan to reach all families. They must identify those parents who do not have children enrolled in district preschool programs, and be willing to support those who have shown they aren’t interested in attending in-person events.

Tips for school administrators:

Stomp out, with reckless abandon, the 'parents just don't care' attitude in your school. After conducting hundreds of parent interviews over the last 2 years, I can tell you nothing is further from the truth. Your ‘tough to reach’ families may not want to engage with you in the ways you’ve tried, but they do care about their children and desperately want to see them do well in school. You just need to figure out how to reach them.

Recognize your K-Ready numbers won’t drastically improve until you engage all families, even those not in district preschool programs.

Identify those families, by any and all means, and capture their contact information:

Sign-up forms on your website

Sign up forms at front desk of each school (and train front office staff so they can explain why they are getting the information).

Ask your community partners (libraries, housing authorities, churches, etc.) to help you gather parent contact information from families they serve.

Once you have a list,invite families to your parent learning events…but don’t forget to,

Develop a plan to support those families who choose not to attend in-person events (there will be many).

How often will you share tips? To have a big impact it needs to be frequent and ongoing (i.e. one tip a week for a year). A single, large tip sheet (with everything a parent needs to know) is overwhelming. Break the content into bite-sized chunks and share frequently.

What channels will you use to communicate? (offer more than one option so parents have a choice)

Email

Text message

Mail

District email/messaging/phone call system (some will allow you to set up a group for ‘preschool parents’ and send frequent tips)

Posting on district website or social media (This is the easiest to implement, but the worst option. Our research indicates you will get low participation by posting and hoping families find it. For the biggest impact, the message needs to come directly to each parent).

Share actionable tips parents can use immediately.

Finally, we need to come up with a meaningful way to measure effectiveness. Few districts and schools quantify their parent engagement efforts. That makes it tough to determine if programs are successful.

Houston ISD in Texas is one district doing it well. Their Family and Community Engagement Department submits an annual report to the board. The report includes data on:

how many family members attended learning events

how many students those parents represent

the grade levels of those children

how those children perform in relation to other students

A school’s report could look like this: 50 parents participated in our text messaging program last year. Those parents had 44 children entering kindergarten. 64% of those children were designated ‘ready for kindergarten.' Of the children who did not have a parent participate in the texting program, only 48% were ‘ready.’

When we ask school and district leaders how many families attended their last parent event, we get answers like, “It was a decent turnout, we had around 100 people here.” They are rarely able to provide an exact number, give a breakdown of attendees (how many teachers, parents, kids, etc.), or tell us how those children are performing compared to students whose parents didn't attend.

Capturing good data will require planning on the part of our school leaders, but it will help them determine what is working and what isn’t.

The time for blaming parents, schools or the funding situation is over. Now it's time to find new ways to support all families.

If we can't make it happen, I'm afraid three years from now we will still be reading that half of Kentucky children are entering school unprepared.

Author

Navigating PTO and PTA fundraisers isn't easy. You must select the right product, round-up parent volunteers, distribute order forms, track purchases, collect the money and deliver orders. It can be such a hassle that many PTO’s are choosing to skip the fundraisers altogether and just ask for donations.

Whether you prefer the traditional fundraiser or “no hassle” pledge drives, there is a passive fundraiser you should consider. It’s administered by Amazon (they call it the Amazon Smile Program) and they return part of purchases to the shopper's charity of choice.

​Here is how it works:

​​

Instead of shopping at www.amazon.com, customers go to www.smile.amazon.com. It’s the same products from Amazon, sold at the same prices. The only difference is part of the purchase price is donated back to the shopper’s favorite charity, like your PTO, PTA or booster club.

On the first visit, customers login with their Amazon account and select their charity.

Shop just like normal. Your PTO/PTA receives 0.5% of the purchase price as a donation.

​The donations will only be counted if a customer starts by first visiting www.smile.amazon.com. You can see this, and your prefered charity, on any product page. That way you know your purchase will count to toward a donation. Each time you start your shopping visit at smile.amazon.com, it remembers the charity you previously selected. You will not have to re-enter it each time.

Amazon keeps track of everything and sends direct deposit donations to your organization every quarter. That’s free money every 3 months for your PTO/PTA! Depending on how many parents you get participating, and how much they shop on Amazon, it could be substantial. If you can get participation from 200 families who spend an average of $100 per year on Amazon, that’s an extra $1,000 for your school... with very little effort on your part.

Click the ‘register now’ button’ (or search here) to see if your PTO/PTA is already in their system.

If your PTO/PTA is listed: Fill out the registration form. You will need to supply your PTO/PTA bank account information for the direct deposit. They will not mail paper checks.

Promote, promote, promote! This is the key to getting a good result. I’ve included some tips at the end of this article that will help you get more parents participating.

If you have any questions about the program or the registration process, visit this FAQ page.

​If your PTO/PTA isn’t listedin the Amazon system: it probably means your organization isn’t a registered non-profit. Amazon pulls their list from GuideStar, who rates all non-profit charitable organizations. It will require a little more work to set up a 501 3(c). PTO Today has a great article on how to make that happen.

If your PTO/PTA is listed but it has incorrect information:You will need to update your profile in the GuideStar database. Make sure the name is easy for your parents to find when they search for their preferred charity. Parents may not be able to find you if they know the school as “LBJ Elementary” but the database calls you “Lyndon Baines Johnson Elementary PTO.”

So how do you get great participation? The key is to mention it frequently. Studies have shown people may not act on information until they have heard it at least six times. If you only send one letter home at the beginning of the year, participation won't be very good. A busy parent may see the letter and intend to sign up, then forget about it the next time they shop on Amazon. But they may sign up next month after reading about it in the school newsletter. Or the following month when they see it on Facebook. Maybe they won’t sign up until you remind them about it during the fall festival, or during the family fun night in December... or during the spring book fair. Keep talking about it and you will get better participation each time it's mentioned.

How to keep the message in front of your parents:

Download this letter. Edit as you see fit (red text definitely needs to change) and ask the teachers if they will send it home with every child.

Print out a stack of the letters and leave them in the front office for parents to pick up when they visit the school.

Post a link to the smile page on your social media accounts at least 1-2 times per month.

Take 30 seconds to talk about it at each meeting or school event. Never have a meeting or event where it isn't mentioned!

Ask the Principal if you can place a reminder in each school newsletter throughout the year.

Ask if you can get a link added on the school website.

I mentioned it earlier but it’s so important I’m going to say it again… make sure parents know how to find your organization! Many schools have similar names. While the Kennedy Elementary PTO on the other side of the country may need the funds, you would prefer donations from your parents come to your Kennedy Elementary. Each time you mention the program, make sure you tell parents exactly what to search for and select.

​Finally, if you get that first big payout from Amazon and are wondering how to spend it, take a look at our Family Five parent education and engagement program. It's a low cost way to help you support all families, even those who rarely attend your events at school.